1 year ago
CryptoQuant co-founder Ki Young Ju said the Chinese authorities is simply a crypto whale, contempt its antagonistic posture toward the industry.
FUN FACT: Government of China
is simply a crypto whale.
Chinese authorities seized 194k BTC, 833k ETH, and others from the PlusToken scam successful 2019. They forfeited these $6 billion-worth assets to the nationalist treasury.
FWIW, MicroStrategy has 130k $BTC. pic.twitter.com/Ilqp7EnenL
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) November 2, 2022
According to Young Ju, China holds $6 cardinal worthy of cryptocurrencies — including 194,000 Bitcoin ($3.9 billion), 833,000 Ethereum ($1.2 billion), and respective different unnamed integer assets — it seized from the PlusToken scam successful 2019.
The PlusToken scam
The PlusToken scam was a Ponzi strategy that began successful 2018 and had investors chiefly from China and South Korea. Reports stated that the strategy had swindled investors disconnected implicit $2 cardinal successful integer assets successful 2019.
The Chinese authorities secured the apprehension of the operation’s masterminds, jailing them for 11 years.
Meanwhile, CryptoQuant investigation revealed that the scammers person cashed retired implicit 90,000 BTC utilizing mixers done assorted addresses. The co-founder besides stated that the malicious players were inactive active, arsenic they sent 50 BTC to the aforesaid mixer past week.
Other countries acquiring crypto done seizures
China is not the lone state acquiring crypto done seizures. Earlier this year, the US Department of Justice seized $3.6 cardinal worthy of Bitcoin connected to the 2016 Bitfinex hack. Before that, the authorities took 70,000 BTC from Ross Ulbricht erstwhile it brought down the Silk Road.
However, dissimilar China, the United States tends to auction disconnected its seized crypto assets. As of Feb. 2022, the US authorities holds $4.08 cardinal worthy of Bitcoin.
The U.K. has besides seized hundreds of millions of crypto assets, astir of which are connected to assorted crimes.
Ukraine and El Salvador besides clasp a chunk of BTC. The erstwhile mostly acquired its crypto via donations to enactment the state successful its warfare with Russia.
On the different hand, El Salvador is the archetypal state successful the satellite to make the flagship integer plus ineligible tender.
Meanwhile, different notable state with crypto holdings is North Korea. Reports state that North Korea-sponsored hackers person stolen up to $2 cardinal successful crypto implicit the past 10 years. The state reportedly spends astir of its crypto holdings connected its defence programs.
The station China holds $3.9B worthy of Bitcoin contempt anti-crypto stance appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
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